Fort Scott boys rout Columbus

Fort Scott's Alex Barner (44) dunks over Columbus' Joe Tillman during the second quarter of a Southeast Kansas League contest at the FSHS gymnasium Friday night. Barner finished with 12 points and five rebounds in the Tigers' 62-21 rout of the Titans. (Dusty Drake/Special to the Herald-Tribune)

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- You know your team has a comfortable lead when the head coach starts going deep on the bench in the second quarter.

But as Fort Scott High's boys shot 50 percent from the field and forced 34 turnovers in a 62-21 rout of Columbus in Southeast Kansas League play at the FSHS gymnasium Friday night, you can see how head coach Jeff DeLaTorre had the luxury of giving some of his JV players some time during the meat of the contest instead of waiting for the fourth quarter, all of which was played under the 30-point running-clock rule, when those players were probably only going to get about two to three minutes of actual playing time.

Ironically, Columbus led 6-5 just a little over two minutes into the game. But as the turnovers began to pile up, Fort Scott (2-1 SEK, 3-3 overall) turned a close game into a rout, leading 24-9 by the end of the period.

Paul Norris' layup with 3:44 to go in the second quarter capped a run of about 7 1/2 minutes in which the Tigers scored 22 straight points. Columbus (0-3, 0-4) missed all seven of its field-goal attempts in the period and made just two of 10 free-throw attempts.

Fort Scott led 38-11 at the half after making 16 of 32 shots from the field and committing just six turnovers to Columbus' 18. Alex Barner scored the Tigers' first four points of the second half as well.

By the time Todd Lucian hit a layup for Columbus with 4:55 to go in the third, the Titans had gone over 14 minutes without a field goal. Fort Scott led 53-17 after three periods.

Gary Floyd led the Tigers with 16 points and five steals. He connected on seven of 12 shots from the field. Alex Barner, six of nine from the floor, added 12 points ad also had four steals. Paul Norris added 10 points off the bench as he made five of nine from the field.

No one from Columbus had more than one field goal. Joe Tillman led the Titans with five points.

Fort Scott connected on 26 of 52 field goals on the night while holding Columbus to seven of 40 (18 percent). The Tigers finished with 18 turnovers, 13 assists and 22 steals. Columbus committed 34 turnovers and had only one assist and seven steals.

Rebounds were even at 36-36. Barner, Floyd, Griffin Knopp and Brandon Boyd each had five boards.

The junior varsity boys won just about as easily, 60-25. Knopp, Jarret Thorpe and Colton Grillott each scored 10 points for the Tigers.

Fort Scott will be idle until January 6. On that night, the Tigers will travel to Chanute to take on the Blue Comets in Southeast Kansas League play.

For the box score, follow this link.